Trickster fx reel

The lads and I are assembling a motion graphics and fx reel. Making a range of support services available to other Michigan film makers could be a lucrative niche. The idea is to repurpose elements from past and current projects and then add new material as we develop it. It’s also an exercise to focus our diverse talents on a common goal, to get better at working together, more organized.

Last night we selected a sequence from Jonathan’s Avenues, a short and rather cynical fantasy about the Detroit auto industry. We shot the live action over a year ago – a veteran executive makes a long winded presentation about the introduction of new car models. The motion graphics comes in with building a conference room around him and then developing the graphics for his presentation. It’s a rather lean and spartan production on purpose, the idea is try and convey the story with just enough detail. It’s almost anime in that sense.

We’ve also got a test scene for Patrick’s concept character, Commando Kill. He’s heavily armed and riding a freight elevator amidst fiery mayhem. The live action is also complete and rotoscoped, ready for a background and pyrotechnics to be inserted. Originally, the plan was to model a background, but to save time we are looking for an existing location with lots of steel beams and clear span. We also had plans to replace one of his weapons with a model, but so far we haven’t been satisfied with the results. Likely we’ll just  track and touch up the live action prop to make it more authentic.

We also dedicated at least one day a week to meeting and making progress.

In other news, the core tai chi folks are starting to study combat mime, so we can safely choreograph fight scenes. Our first session was last night and it was really fun.